Hello All I had a discussion recently with an experienced beekeeper on the subject of swarm control. He told me that he uses the following system to obtain evidence of the existence of queen cells without having to open the brood chamber. He takes the roof off the hive, removes the inner cover a little until he can see the bees. Then if he sees many bees standing in rows like soldiers with their snouts pointing upwards this tells him that there are queen cells in that hive. If on the other hand the bees are ambling around rather aimlessly (at least to us), then it can be taken that there are no queen cells in that hive. He claims that he has used this system for 30 years and finds it dependable. He did say that in the beginning that he checked the brood chamber and found that the pointing bees always betrayed the existence of queen cells. Has anybody used this type of system and as always comments very welcome? Sincerely Tom Barrett Dublin Ireland